1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a metal thin film which has excellent transferability, and a method of preparing the same.
A metal thin film obtained according to the present invention is transferrable so that it may be used in a circuit which is provided on a substrate, an electrode for an electronic component, a display metallic foil or the like, for example.
2. Description of the Background Art
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 1-42809 (1989), now U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,744, discloses a transfer technique which is employed for forming electrodes for an electronic component, and more specifically, internal electrodes for a multilayer ceramic capacitor, for example. Such a transfer technique is evaluated as a technique which is effective for forming thin internal electrodes.
In more detail, a thin film forming method such as vapor deposition or sputtering is known as a method of forming thin internal electrodes, i.e., metal thin films. A plurality of unfired ceramic green sheets are laminated in order to prepare a multilayer ceramic capacitor. The internal electrodes, which are provided between adjacent ones of the ceramic green sheets, must be formed in advance of lamination. However, it is difficult to directly form metal thin films on the ceramic green sheets, which are mechanically weak and hard to handle, by the aforementioned thin film forming method. First, therefore, thin films for defining internal electrodes are formed on handleable films which are different from ceramic green sheets, and then transferred onto ceramic green sheets, so that it is easy or possible to form the metal thin films on the ceramic green sheets.
Thus, the internal electrodes are formed by metal thin films through a transfer technique, so that it is possible to reduce the dimensions, particularly the thickness, of the as-formed multilayer ceramic capacitor. In addition, it is possible to ever out the thickness in the laminated state along the direction of extension of the ceramic green sheets. Due to the latter property, it is possible to reduce the possibility of inconveniences such as delamination after firing of the laminated ceramic green sheets.
Thus, the transfer technique enables formation of internal electrodes of metal thin films which provide some advantages in relation to a multilayer ceramic capacitor. It is desirable for each metal thin film to be completely transferred onto a target surface with excellent transferability, in order to carry out the transfer technique. If the metal thin film is not completely transferred with a desired pattern by the transfer technique which is employed for forming an internal electrode for a multilayer ceramic capacitor, for example, the as-formed multilayer ceramic capacitor is rendered defective, as a matter of course.